2.1 for the eternal state 21:1-8 and 21:9 to 22:5 the millennium
The division of these chapters would have been happier if the passage of 21:1-8 had been attached to the series of events of ch. 20 to form an uninterrupted. The chain of events ends fit neatly at the end of ver. 8 of c. 21. Then, from ver. 9 of c. 21 to ver. 5 of c. 22, we have another portion whose details are linked together. The first eight verses of ch. 21 relate to a period quite different from what follows. From verse 9 of c. 21, we return back to the millennium, while the verses (21:1-8) above are the most complete account that God provides for new heavens and new earth, in the true sense of those terms. This scene is after the thousand-year reign, the great white throne, and of course, to the complete dissolution of the heavens and the earth now, which are still present when the throne is established. Then, when this quick description of the eternal state is complete, the Spirit of God adds additional, or appendix, very important, on the state of things during the millennium. Nothing about this situation was given at the mention of this millennium era in history that will result from Apoc. 19 to 21:8.
2.1.1 No nation and no cure in the eternal state
It may be objected to this by saying: On what authority do you base to divide the chapters in this way? Why not take the c. 21 whole as applying to a single period, and have probably even those who made the division of chapters? Why not assume that what is said of the new Jerusalem in the fifth. 10, refers to the same date as what is said in ver. 2? - The answer is simple. In the eternal state, God has to do with men, all distinctions of time have ceased; there is then neither kings, nor nations. But this is precisely what we find in the first eight verses. Take for example, ver. 3: "And I heard a great voice from heaven saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and He will dwell with them, and they shall be His people, and God Himself will be with them, God ". If we look at the last part of ch. 21, we again are dealing with nations and of earthly kings. “And the nations will walk by its light, and kings of the earth bring their glory into it” etc… When eternity begins, God has finished acting with things that are in the order of the world, like kings, nations, or other arrangements of a temporal nature. All this implies a government, a government and assumed that there struggling to repress. This is not the eternal state we have in the last part of ch. 21, but a previous state of affairs which the first verses (1-5) of c. 22 complete the description. There is mention of a tree, “and leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations” (22:2). In other words, the time referred to this verse, there will not only nations, but these nations will need healing, and God will supply what their condition demands. For mind without prejudice, that’s something to be satisfied that at c. 22, the Spirit of God does not refer to the following the last judgment, when all that is related to the world will be completely ended, but that He returns to a previous state where God still governs. It should be noted also that, in the part relating to the millennium (that is to say from 21:9), we have names related to the dispensation, as the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb ; it is not so in ch. 21:1-8 which is related to eternity, and God be all in all (1 Cor. 15:28).
2.1.2 Other historical tables in the Apocalypse
Another remark can still help convince, it is the usual way in which God made the historical tables in this book. I say this to show that in the presentation of the arrangement of events as I understand, I’m not going to argue in favor of something unprecedented. Take for example the c. 14. We saw a very regular series of seven-time events, the fall of Babylon is in third place in the order. After that comes the judgment of the worshipers of the beast, and then the Holy Spirit declares blessed those who die in the Lord, then, the Lord’s judgment is presented in two ways, as the crop harvest, and as the pressing of the harvest (harvest contained a discriminating judgment, and the vintage judgment of mere revenge). Babylon is here very clearly its place assigned by God. But long after, in prophecy, when the Spirit of God showed us the vials of the wrath of God, we again Babylon, whose fall is given in the seventh section. This is important because the Holy Spirit begins to describe the character and conduct that necessitated such a terrible visitation of God’s hand. In this case, the Holy Spirit made us go to bed. 14 events after the fall of Babylon, up to the Lord’s coming in judgment, then it jumps back in bed. 17 and 18 to show us details of Babylon and its relationship with the beast and the kings of the earth.
However, it seems to me that this is exactly the order of events of ch. 21. There is a striking similarity in how the heavenly Jerusalem and Babylon are introduced, and although no doubt there is a very strong contrast and very marked between the two, however, it is fairly obvious, I think he , that the Holy Spirit had both at once on His mind. Thus, in Revelation. 17:1, it says: “And one of the seven angels which had the seven bowls came and spoke, saying, Come hither, I will show you the judgment of the great prostitute who sits on many waters.” Such is the statement made when the vision goes back to Babylon and describe his fate. This is exactly the same way what the vision introduced corresponding to c. 21, which goes back to see the bride, the Lamb’s wife. “And one of the seven angels which had the seven vials full of the seven last plagues came and spoke, saying, Come hither, I will show thee the bride, the Lamb’s wife.” Just as Babylon was a definite place in the historical sequence of events, and once completed this sequence, the Holy Spirit stopped to retrospectively disclose details of his ways which have, so to speak, forced God to judge, - exactly the same way, the wife of the Lamb, the new Jerusalem, is seen in these two characters in the final outline of the history that goes until the end. And now, the Holy Spirit comes back, even describing the New Jerusalem in connection with the millennial reign, and the kings and nations who will be on earth.
To c. 19:7 we have the bride, the Lamb’s wife, who is preparing. To c. 21:2 we have the new Jerusalem descending out of heaven from God, still fresh from the beauty of bride, while over a thousand years have passed. But now, at ch. 21:9, the fact is very important that the bride, the Lamb’s wife, is the holy city Jerusalem. "And one of the seven angels … came and spake unto me, saying, Come hither, I will show thee the bride, the Lamb’s wife. And he carried me away in spirit to a great and high mountain, and showed me [not the big city, but] the holy city, Jerusalem, descending out of heaven from God "(21:9-10). John was called to see the wife, and when he looks, he sees the heavenly Jerusalem. Thus, if we have the wife in relation to the Lamb c. 19, and in relation to the eternal state as the holy city, New Jerusalem, c. 21:1-8, verses 9 and 21 following in this chapter we show that in the interval between the marriage of the Lamb and the new heavens and new earth of the eternal state, the wife plays a very blessed before God and men. This is the manifestation millennium of the Church.
May these few introductory remarks prepare the way, and prove that I advance nothing that can not be demonstrated when I take the first eight verses of ch. 21 as a direct result of events ch.19 to 20, and considering the rest of this chapter 21, from verse 9, as a retrospective description of the state millennium. Obviously there are the strongest reasons in favor of this interpretation, and it seems to me that any other is truly out of the question, if we weigh the correct context. Impossible for a person educated in the Word and unprejudiced, who carefully considers the circumstances described here, can assume that the following verse 9 can be concurrent with the immediately preceding section. These are, as we have already noticed, two incompatible states of affairs.
